Jerod
Masculine · “descent”
Jerod sits between two names that are not related to each other at all. Jared is Hebrew and biblical. Jarrod is English and came from a surname. They fell together in American speech because they sound nearly identical, and Jerod is one of the spellings that resulted — a name whose ancestry depends on which of its neighbors you think it belongs to.
How old is the name Jerod?
Jerod first appears in US birth records in 1936 — 89 years ago. The typical Jerod alive today was born around 1985, making them about 40 years old. About 5,700 people named Jerod are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jerod most popular?
Jerod peaked in 1980, reaching #493 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,515 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yered to Jerod
The story of Jerod
Jared sat unused for centuries as one of the long-lived names in the Genesis genealogy, the kind of name that appears in a list and nowhere else. It came into American use in the middle of the twentieth century, and a television western gave it a broad audience: the eldest Barkley brother in The Big Valley was Jarrod, spelled the surname way. After that the two spellings and the two origins were thoroughly mixed, and families wrote whichever version they had heard. Jerod is the plainest of the group — one r, one o, nothing doubled — which is why it is also the one most often assumed to be a mistake.
Meaningscholars disagree
descent, if it is Jared; spear-brave, if it is Jarrod
Two unrelated lines meet here. Jared is Hebrew Yered, from a verb meaning to go down or descend, and it belongs to a man in the genealogies of Genesis, the father of Enoch. Jarrod is an English surname form of Garrett, which is Gerald or Gerard worn down — Germanic, built from a spear and either rule or courage. Nothing about this spelling chooses between them.
How the name formed
- Yered
- Jared
- Jarrod
- Jerod
Related forms: Yered · Jared
Pronouncing Jerod
JAIR-ud
Two syllables, stress on the first, second syllable reduced. Some families say JER-od with a fuller second vowel; the difference is small and nobody is misunderstood.
Nicknames for Jerod
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1936
- Most boys named
- 1981285 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #493reached in 1980
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%5 in 2025, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Jerod in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yered in Hebrew — transliteration
- Jared in Spanish — same name
Jerods among us
people named Jerod are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Jerod
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jerod
- #12008
- Jerod on the 2025 chart
- #910
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jerod went to 5 boys in 2025, but Jerrod is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 18, which makes it the 910th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,098 places above the chart.
- Jerrod13
- Jerod5
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Jerod itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Daron test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jerod's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Daron climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Daron's path sketches the road Jerod is walking now.
Jerod sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Jerod beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jerod in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is the simplest spelling of a sound that other versions complicate with doubled letters.
- Both possible ancestries are respectable and old, so there is something real to tell either way.
- Two syllables, five letters, and no pronunciation question at all.
- Jared, Jarrod, Jarod and Jerrod all sound the same, and correspondence will use all of them.
- The name is anchored to one American decade in a way that a boy will notice when he meets others his age.
- Because two origins meet in it, no single meaning can be given cleanly.
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What they receive
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Jerod
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jerods are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Jerod are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jerod?
- Jerod is one of 2 recorded spellings. Jerrod is the more common one — 13 births in 2025 against 5 for Jerod.
- How popular is the name Jerod in 2025?
- Jerod ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jerod?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Jerod — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jerod with classmates?
- Jerod will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jerod
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jerod? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jerod and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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